TRADE PROSPECTS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 112, 14 May 1930, Page 13

TRADE PROSPECTS

BETTER PRICE OUTLOOK

PROFESSOR BELSHAW'S VIEWS

(Special to "The Evening Post.") AUCKLAND, 13th May.; An increase iii the overseas market prices for New Zealand produce, and .a gradual improvement in the trade position in the Dominion after a period or financial difficulty, were prophegied m an address yesterday by Professor HBelshaw, Professor of Economics at Auckland University College. In the year 1928-29, Professor Belshaw said, the general . position was such that an increase in business aetivi-j ties might reasonably have been ox-1 peeled. Tho extent to whic? it occurred was disappointing. A lack of confidence among investors, a high bank rate, and the employment of an increased return in repaying debts to the more cautious investing public could be blamed for the failure to register a great improvement in trade. "Nevertheless, I feel that the absence of boom in that year will make it much easier for New Zealand to weather the present hard times," Professor Belshaw said. "We can expect difficult conditions for a while. At present the wool and dairy produce prices are,' to say the least, unsatisfactory, and Australia's position has reacted -on us unfavourably in many ways. On the other hand, the lowering of the English bank ' rate will very probably mean a transformation in. tratle there, and will result in better prices for our products, particularly food. Moreover, it must bt remembered that large quantities of wool and even dairy produce have been held back by farmers in the hopes of better times. When they are released a resultant increase in the farmers' spending power will improve conditions here. "Ono serious question can be asked: Why are the banks-holding the large reserves of gold in Wellington when London banks aro finding tho balance of trade difficult to cope with? They may have good reason for it," Professor Belshaw concluded, "but my opinion is that they have little use for it here. It is sheer waste of capital, and it means expensive loss of interest."